Teaching political poetry in literature classroom
Submitted by:
Sotiria Kalasaridou
Abstract:
The central aim of the research is to investigate the ways of perceiving and making meaning with political poetry through talking and writing in classroom of secondary education. The research project focuses on the transmission of ethics and values through the teaching of political poetry to learners. As people explore their own political views and engage in new political conversations both in person and across social media, it is important to explore the role of political poetry in classroom as a viable means of students’ political expression. It is also crucial to find out the link between the teaching of political poetry and students’ engaging with their political world focusing on citizenship and democracy now days (Cuminale, 2017).
The research is based on the theoretical underpinnings of the Reader- Response theory introducing by Wolfgang Iser (Iser, 1976) and the reception theory of Hans – Robert Jauss, (Jauss, 1977), which both draw on the interaction between the text and the reader. The research questions are the following: i. How can the teaching of the political poetry improve students’ reading strategies and creative writing skills? ii. What are the findings regarding the responses, negotiations, and representations of the learners in respect of the poems’ political ideas? iii. In which ways do the learners comprehend the symbols of political poetry?
The qualitative research was contacted using ethnography method in literature classes in upper secondary education (second and third Grade of the high school in Greece). The recorded lessons are transcribed and coded with MAXQDA. The transcribed lessons and the written texts and homework assignments produced by learners are analyzed using the qualitative content analysis. Individual teaching sequences are selected and analyzed using discourse analysis focus on subject learning. The analysis shows the relation between the methods used and the empirical data.
The main results of the research are related to i. The ways in which the students comprehend the meaning of the political poetry. ii. The teaching practices used for making meaning with the texts. iii. How the teaching can help students for perceiving of texts’ ethical and political ideas in now days. iv. The role of writing in classroom for deeper understanding of the symbolic literature language.
Key words: Teaching political poetry; upper secondary education; ethnography method; reader response theory; reception theory; multimodality.
References
Booker, M. K. (Ed.). (2015). Literature and politics today: the political nature of modern fiction, poetry, and drama / M. Keith Booker, editor; contributors, Jeff Allred [and ninety nine others]. (1st ed.). Greenwood. Retrieved November 24, 202.
Cuminale, R. (2017). “Poetry in Public Discourse: Reading, Writing, and Circulating the Political Poem”. Curriculum Units by Fellows of the National Initiative
2017 Volume III: Poetry and Public Life. Yale National Initiative to strengthen teaching on public schools. Retrieved November 26, 2023, from https://teachers.yale.edu/curriculum/viewer/initiative_17.03.01_u
Iser, W. (1976). Der Akt des Lesens. Theorie ästhetischer Wirkung. München: Fink.
Jauss, H.R. (1977). Ästhetische Erfahrung und literarische Hermeneutik. Versuche im Feld der ästhetischen Erfahrung. München: Fink.
Klawitter, U., & Viol, C.-U. (2013). Contemporary political poetry in Britain and Ireland / Uwe Klawitter. (eds.). Winter.